Karpos Skopje

... there. It's all a matter of perspective here in the Balkans. Pajaziti was killed in one of the battles against them and the newly formed government in Kosovo pardoned him for any wrongdoings since they could find no proof somehow. And now he has a statue all to himself right on Mother Theresa Blvd. How ironic.

I will let you know what I find on the road to Sofia, Bulgaria. I am sure it will be interesting.

... pick up.' Most things you can pick up from foreign tongues I wouldn't take home to show Mom. At least there's a real bus station in Skopje. That's refreshing. Tirana had nothing of the sort. 'Muddy patch' indeed! But our mignight bus is late and I'm freezing outside waiting for it. I mean FREEZING! I've been cold this whole trip, but this is ridiculous! Our bus finally shows up and we pile on quickly. Macedonia passes under our ...

... Dobrica( the grandmother ) was very pleased that I enjoyed the food. Bazhe, Marija, Natasha (Filip's girlfriend) and I sat and talked while she was making the food. It was a nice visit with them all, but then we left to go back to the house. There was a drastic change in the weather these past few days.. It was about 100 degrees when I first arrived in Skopje and now it turned 64 degrees. With the weather change and with my luck, I got a head cold ...

... the first time using a turkish toilet. This is one that you have to place your feet in the right position and "squat" over a hole to pee. This was interesting, but I managed to do it without peeing all over my self. I am very glad that I didn't have to do (number 2)!!!- that would be another story. Once we left the ancient city, we headed to the Macedonian- Greek border. The border crossing is called Medzitlija. We left our car to cross into the what is called "no man's land ...

... two more days. Not too much else is going on. After a few hours of driving to various police stations im finally legal here! yay. Ana told the production she would tell locations to pull out if they didnt make her the AD for a few days, so Gaby isnt the AD anymore. Ana has been ADing for two days, and shes doing an ok job but overall it kinda makes me uncomfortable that she would do that. Oh well. Ca su fin or something.

... Otherwise, there wasn't too much to see. And it was really cold out. Good thing I only planned one day here. That evening I decided to do laundry since the hostel actually had a dryer, a rarity in these parts. It had been a while since I'd been anywhere long enough to have time for my clothes to dry, so this was a much needed cleaning. About 5 minutes after my clothes had been moved from the washer to the dryer, the power went out. Macedonia doesn ...

So we catch the night train to Thessaloniki where we then catch a day train to Athens.. pretty simple.. 1 day travel right.. ummmmm nooo.. Australians need a visa to be issued on there passports before they set foot into Macadonia.. which we didn't have... so the lovely police man came checked to see if we did have the visa and told us to get off the train go back to Belgrade and ...

... my Mom to baby sit with my son Igor (he was barely three then, while she was barely fifty years of age) because she simply adored the boy. People in Macedonia do not take men of 27 as particularly serious, especially not so if they had not served their army duty. Mothers of 23 were treated like college dropouts. That was a total nonsense and we were leaving the whole parochial and patriarchal atmosphere behind. In the process of preparation I gave in (giving in was ...

... cheap. So after talked to this guy, he started sounding a little fishing, saying that he would drive us to our next destination that night which is about a 3 hour drive and that he was the manager of the cheap hotel, (then why would he be the one waiting outside of the train station?) But then, as we were talking to him and trying to peacefully get out of the conversation and just walk away, two goons that were ...

... would expect Monique from Secret Army to pop up,at any minute. We w**e driven to a safe house,wh**e we sat in the garden as the hosts waited upon us.The man of the house came and told us his story of being imprisoned by the police the previous year,and of being beaten while in custody.He lifted his shirt,and showed us the scars on his back.Two revolv**s w**e lovingly unwrapped from their hessian cov**s and shown off to us,and we w**e left in no doubt as ...